Periods in Chinese rug making

At  whatever  actual  time  the  Chinese rugs  were  made which now exist in collections and museums, the designs used by their makers may be readily classed as belonging to one or another of five great styles that have made Chinese art what it is.

Looking into the remote past for the influences that produced the   first of the  great styles, we  find  convincing evidence    that,    on    ancient     bronzes     and sacrificial   vessels   and   implements   used   by Confucianists and Taoists, the designs mythological, naturalistic  and geometric are to be, which  have been copied all  through Centuries.   

These designs were native to China, had to do with ancestor worship and the worship of heaven and earth, and were elemental and crude in conception and execution ; but as they were originally drawn they were often copied in facsimiles of later date.